2011 Southern US drought

The 2010–13 Southern United States and Mexico drought was a severe to extreme drought that plagued the Southern United States, including parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, as well as large parts of Mexico, in a three-year pattern from 2010 to 2013.

The worst effects were in Texas, which experienced the brunt of the drought and its driest August–July (12-month) period on record from 2010-11. The dry spell in 2011 was also said to be the worst one-year period of drought in Texas since 1895. The U.S. Drought Monitor reported that Lubbock, Texas has experienced the nation’s worst average level of drought since the beginning of 2011. McAllen, Harlingen, Brownsville and Corpus Christi also ranked among the nine U.S. cities most affected by extreme drought.The drought in Texas caused an estimated $7.62 billion in crop and livestock losses, surpassing the previous record loss of $4.1 billion set in 2006. In Texas, combined with the rest of the South, at least $10 billion in agricultural losses were recorded in 2011.

The drought began due to a strong La Niña developing by the summer of 2010 which brings below average rainfall to the southern United States. The effects of the La Niña could be noticed immediately as much of the south receives important rainfall during the summer, and this was the driest summer for Texas and Georgia in the 21st century thus far, and much of the south received record low rainfall.

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